Tracy's Little Corner
This is a tumblelog, kinda like a blog but with short-form, mixed-media posts with stuff I like. Scroll down a bit to start reading, or a bit more to read more about me.
Thank you Disney. It took 70 years and a push from Pixar, but you FINALLY gave us a mother/daughter adventure.
Bless you for not killing her/making her evil/pushing her off to the side.
I just want to take a moment to have some serious gushing about the symbolism in this movie, because this gifset is actually really good for it. I was watching the commentary the other day after buying this movie, and there’s a point where they mention how you can TELL Elinor used to be feisty and quite fiery in her youth, much like her very headstrong daughter, but everything about her now is that of a dignified lady who has had to rein herself in to be the diplomat for their kingdom.
Early in the film, you see her walk in a very closed fashion. She holds herself tightly, does not gesture broadly, rarely speaks up. Even her weighted, heavy dress and the way she wears her hair show her as being restrained by the duties she has put upon herself.
Then… the events of the movie occur, and in the end, you see her in a loose flowing dress that seems almost more like something Merida would wear. She’s excitable, going out and doing things with her daughter, and her long hair is no longer tied back, but instead neatly pinned and flowing. In essence, Elinor herself opened up. She let go and found herself becoming more accepting.
Merida wasn’t the only person who learned a lesson about family and responsibility in this movie. Elinor learned that she had to let go now and then in order to relate to, and to understand, her daughter better. It wasn’t just Merida growing up, it was Elinor finding that middle ground and standing firmly on it, supporting her daughter’s beliefs when she realized that Merida wasn’t the only one who hadn’t listened.
She hadn’t, either, and Merida was not the only one at fault. The result was not just a one sided lesson, but a beautiful, rounded story of a mother and a daughter finding out that their differences are what really make them so alike, and finding that place to stand together. Maybe they won’t always see eye to eye, but they’ve now learned that they must have open conversation and understanding to hold their family together, and both women grew up immensely in that moment of realization.
In short: it’s not just my own Scottish heritage that makes me love this movie. It’s that this film is so indicative of the relationships so many young women feel themselves in with their mothers, and I personally am no exception. Elinor and Merida speak to women and daughters everywhere, young and old, and the lesson they learn is one we can all adhere to, no matter how hard it sometimes feels to accept that.
while painting some film stuff (i hate backgrounds omg), i’ve been keeping brave on as background noise… and when i got too fed up with my film stuff for tonight, i tried to draw some brave stuff!
oh my gosh, you’d think that because the characters from brave are a lot less caricatured and stylized compared to the human characters in say, the incredibles or ratatouille, that they’d be a bit easier to draw? noo way…. i found myself getting frustrated, even while doing silly sketches. elinor is near impossible to draw, i find!
oh, well. i had fun with merida’s hair and eyes. i love minkyu lee (a disney artist, not pixar) so i tried to emulate the way he does his eyes. they’re so intense and round, and cute… but unsettling? in a good way!
I think the problem you might be having is not making Elinor’s face round enough? I’ve tried drawing it before and was surprised to realize that it’s essentially Merida’s same circular face but with a little more aging.
You’ve never given up on me.
Brave | Mark Andrews, Brenda Chapman, 2012
Fate be changed, look inside. Mend the bond torn by pride.
FAVORITE MOTHER/DAUGHTER AND/OR SISTER RELATIONSHIP:
MERIDA AND ELINOR FROM PIXAR’S BRAVE.
This answer fell in the no-brainer category for me. Merida and Elinor’s relationship is at the absolute heart of this film, and it’s a brave film (no pun intended) because of that. A movie like this, an adventure film with the soul of the story being in the developing and healing of a relationship between a mother and a daughter, SHOULDN’T be this unheard of, but it totally is.
Brave has periphery characters, and it’s also about family on the whole, but it truly is a story of two extremely different women who love and love strongly, but who struggle with each other because of those differences, coming to discover the value in each other (and thus themselves) and embracing that and realizing how dear they are to one another.
It’s a story that could be told during any time period or in any world, because it is so real and so identifiable, because mothers and daughters have these complex and unique relationships and it is SO RARE for film to capture them like this, to present a story that essentially has two protagonists and does not favor either side’s point of view but instead shows how different points of view and different generations can come together, be stronger together. Basically Brave is amazing, and Merida and Elinor’s relationship has resonated to the core of so many mothers and daughters. This is a movie that we needed, and it is one that I believe will stand the test of time.
About
Hello, my name is Tracy. I am a white, bisexual, cis woman with Asperger’s syndrome. I live in Colorado with my family. I generally like to fangirl about things I like and rant about things I dislike.
If you’re misogynist, racist, ablest, cissexist, queer bigoted and/or just an uncaring insensitive asshole then please don’t bother following this blog. Thank you.
These are the other sites I go to:
ELLJAY: http://fairy1234.livejournal.com/profile
DEVIANTFART: http://tamatava.deviantart.com/
